Probability 1 - Chapter 23:

The Brainiac War

Part 3: The Gathering Storm (part 2)

© Dylan Clearbrook

Green Lantern Corps HQ - Oa

“Perhaps you don’t fully understand the situation here, Guardian.” Jennifer Walters-Gand glared at the Guardian from Probability 9 as she spoke.

She stood in an infirmary on the planet Oa, home of the Guardians of the Universe and the Green Lantern’s Corps for Probability 1 beside the bed of her friend and partner, Arisia Gand. It had been Arisia Fentara until she and Lar had, after she and the golden-skinned Sentinel had returned from the Isle of the Amazons,.in gratitude for her help in saving their baby, and consequently becoming her second mother, adopted her into their small family. It was not a marriage since, unlike either Arisia or Lar, Jenny had been born and raised in Earth’s Western Culture and had not been able to shake her early conditioning that marriage was between one man and one woman. She knew she was being hypocritical in that since she had been the one that had virtually thrown Rogue and Kara together.

She had admitted to herself, if no one else, that she felt a strong attraction to Arisia, though after what she had recently learned, she wondered if she had been as successful in hiding that from Arisia as she thought she had been.

She and Arisia, she knew, were more closely linked than almost any two lovers could be.

When Arisia had shown up in Probability One, she and Jenny had formed a link that allowed them both to live.

The act of creating the Great Battery of Otherverse had forced her to draw all the energy of the Otherverse Shard into her own body. She had been damaged, changed by energy, becoming a virtual Cosmic Energy Generator. Unfortunately, though her body could handle the massive amounts of energy, her mind could not. Without something that constantly drained off excess energy, she would have gone mad. For a short time, the Multiverse Starheart had taken care of that problem, drawing off enough energy to allow Jenny to retain her sanity. Enter Arisia Fentara. With a body contaminated by yellow radiation, only the constant influx of energy from the Multiverse Starheart had kept her alive.

Perhaps the Starheart had seen a way to kill two birds with one stone, or perhaps it had envisioned times when these two would travel beyond its influence, or maybe it foresaw its own temporary weakness following the Continuum War.

For whatever reason, it had bonded these two together. It had thrown them together and allowed them to merge to form a mega-Sentinel named Senturia. From that point on, the two had been locked together and would be for the rest of their natural live.. Jenny was able to keep her sanity because Arisia was there to draw off the excess energy her body generated and Arisia was able to live because the energy Jenny provided powered her and held off the effects of the yellow radiation. On Themyscira, the yellow radiation that had suffused Arisia’s body had actually been instrumental in saving Jenny’s baby. And though it had not been intended, for a short instant, after the endangered baby had been removed from the artificial womb created by Reed Richards and placed within Senturia, Arisia alone had carried it when Senturia could not hold her form. Now her blood, her very DNA, was mixed with that of Lar and Jenny and the fetus. In effect, the fetus now, due to a mystical cytoplasmic transference caused by the Purple Healing Ray of the Amazons, had the mixed DNA of three parents. Four, if one counted that Barbara Gordon had also been temporarily pulled into the merger while under the Purple Ray, though it was not known how much of her essence had been contributed to the child.

Afterward, Arisia had discovered that the Yellow radiation had been completely eradicated from her body. Yet still her very existence depended on Jenny and the energy she created.

All these thoughts whirled through Jenny’s head as she glared at the Guardian. She turned to look down on the sleeping face of her friend and clenched her fists.

In addition to the Guardian from Probability Nine and his companion, the Green Lantern Hal Jordan, two other Guardians stood around the bed. Both were exact duplicates of each other. Only slight differences in their clothing allowed Jenny to tell them apart. Both were female and both were named Shandra. One from this Probability, the other from the Probablity that had come to be known as Probability Two. The same Probability that this Arisia came from. Or supposedly came from, if Ganthet was correct in his conclusion.

“Perhaps there is a more simple explanation.” Hal Jordan spoke slowly, regarding the sleeping Arisia with eyes narrowed in thought. He turned to Ganthet. “You say she isn’t the Arisia from Probability Two.” He indicated the Guardian Jenny called Shandra-2. “If that was the case, she would be able to determine that, shouldn’t she?”

“Hal Jordan has a point.” Shandra-2 nodded to Ganthet. “It was a good theory, but I can attest that this is indeed the Arisia from my Probability. Though people might look the same, those from different probabilities tend to have a life signature unique to the Probability they come from. Arisia’s life signature matches that of Probability Two.”

“In that case, there are only two other alternatives. Either you are lying about her relationship to Hal Jordan, and the Great Battery confirms that you are not, or her memories have been tampered with in some other fashion.”

“Wait a minute.” Jenny closed her eyes, trying to coax a memory to the surface. “It was through Arisia that we met the Inheritors. She had traveled there with some of their people that blundered into Probability Two. It was during her return from the Inheritor’s Continuverse that she was attacked. Instead of ending up in her own Probability, she showed up in ours, being chased by Sinestro and his thugs. She never could figure out how she ended up in our probability….nor could we ever discover why she ended up in Probability One…a full two months before the Inheritors ever showed up in Probability Two. So not only did she end up in the wrong Probability, she some how traveled backwards in time, as well.”

“Perhaps the attack by Sinestro was a cover.” Hal concluded. “I would say that some where between the time she left the Inheritor’s Continuverse and her appearance in this Probability, she was abducted. Her memory was altered, and then she was released. However, who ever was behind it, wasn’t as careful as he or she should have been.”

“But why?” Jenny shook her head. “Why plant a memory…” She paused and shook her head. “To re-enforce her distrust of The Guardians. To turn that distrust into out right hatred.”

“Most probably.” Ganthet nodded, looking at Hal with undisguised respect. “One has to wonder what would have happened if she had not ended up in this Probability? What would have happened if she had returned to her home Probability and that hatred had been left to fester unchecked?”

“More importantly, how could this have been done without the Starheart knowing about it?” Jenny demanded.

“There is only one possible way.” Shandra-1 spoke up, she looked at the other two Guardian’s and they nodded their silent agreement. “If there is a weakness that we share with the Starheart, it is Magic. You know better than most that the Starheart of the Multiverse is unique in the Continuum in that it is Cosmic rather than Magical in nature.”

“That raises another problem.” Hal brought their attention back to him. “If her memories have been altered by magic, then anything you do will probably only make things worse.”

“If it was, indeed magic, and remember that I am only speculating that it might have been magic, then yes.” Shandra-2 nodded and looked at Jenny. “You were right to stop us, Jennifer Walters-Gand.” She said. “If it was magic, then it will take magic to undo what magic has done.”

“Great.” Jenny’s shoulder’s slumped. “Just where the hell do I….” She paused and straightened. “I got it.” She looked at the three Guardians. “I will return as quickly as I can. Don’t let her wake up!”

Without waiting for a response, she began to fade from sight.

“Interesting.” Hal commented as Jenny’s form vanished completely. “I thought you blue guys were the only ones able to do that.”

MVP1-23

It was a full two days before Jenny reappeared and gathered every one back in the infirmary room that held Arisia. She was not alone and she introduced the man that accompanied her as Dr. Stephen Strange from Probability 10.

Dr. Strange wasted little time before moving to Arisia’s bedside and placing fingers gently along her temples, his eyes closed.

To those watching, it seemed as if he simply stood there, touching her for a brief moment before straightening and turning back to them.

“You were correct.” He told them. “Her memories have been altered, but not by magic. It is almost as if she passed through an area of space and time that was in the process of…unraveling!” He looked back down at the drugged Graxian. “I believe that this happened because she had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.” He touched her temple again but continued to speak. “The original memories were not wiped; they were simply overlaid with the amalgamated memories of countless versions of herself.” His eyes closed and his voice took on a dreamy quality. “She is crossing through the Bleed.”

“The Bleed is what the borders between the Continuverses in the Continuum is called.” Jenny whispered to Hal when he started to ask. “In most cases, it takes a great portal to get from one Continuverse to another, but the barriers are weaker, the Bleed narrower, between the Multiverse, Alterverse, and the Inheritor’s Continuverse for some reason.” Her voice trailed off as Dr. Strange continued.

“The Inheritor’s Continuverse is more closely aligned with Multiverse Probability One so she has to make adjustments to shift into Probability Two.”

“Without shifting to compensate, anyone coming from The Inheritor’s Continuverse, or Alterverse for that matter, will automatically end up in Probability One.” Jenny whispered the explanation to Hal.

“She is about to cross the barrier into Probability Two when….” Dr. Strange shook his head. “It is not clear. I don’t think she had the opportunity to realize what she saw before she struck.” He looked over his shoulder at Jenny. “She saw something in the Bleed. An energy wave of some sort. But the wave was not centered on Probability Two. It appears to have been centered in Probability Three. That was the end of her original memories until she arrived in Probability One.”

“I would imagine that energy wave packed quite a punch.” Hal spoke up. “Whoever is responsible had little more knowledge of the Multiverse than I do.” He indicated Jenny with his chin. “We’ll probably never know how she happened to get Sinestro on her tail. But she did and that is probably what saved her. Without having to worry about Sinestro, she probably would have shifted into her own Probability. But Sinestro kept her too busy so she naturally zeroed in on the nearest Cosmic energy source.”

“Me.” Jenny nodded slowly. “We were taking care of a fleet of Khund ships that had no business being where they were. Or existing at all, for that matter.”

“On that, I believe we have discovered an answer.” Shandra-1 said. “And it is quite possible, from what Dr. Strange says, that Arisia’s…condition…is part of a larger problem.” She turned to Dr. Strange. “Can you heal her?” She demanded.

“I believe so.” Dr. Strange nodded. “I can remove the overlaying memories, but I will not be able to remove the knowledge that those memories were there.”

“Huh?” Jenny shook her head. “You want to run that by me again?”

“I can restore her original memories.” Dr. Strange explained. “But her mind will retain the knowledge that those overlaying memories had been planted in her mind. Removing those would mean wiping out everything that has happened to her since she arrived in Probability One.”

“She’ll feel like she was mentally raped if you go in and fix it with out her knowledge.” Hal warned.

“No.” Dr. Strange denied. “For what I need to do, she will have to be fully awake and agreeable.”

“You can’t just go in and undo whatever was done while she is out?” Jenny asked.

“It would cause more damage, I believe. To her mental well being if nothing else.” Strange responded. He then turned to Hal and the Guardians. “I believe it would be best if you left Jennifer and I alone with Arisia. Seeing you would upset her and we will need her to be as calm as possible.”

The Guardians and Hal all nodded and quietly left the room. Once they were gone, Dr. Strange turned to Jenny.

“If you would, would you awaken her? As gently as possible.” He ordered.

Jenny moved to the bedside and let her power flow into Arisia.

“Hey girl, time to wake up.” She called softly. “We got things to see and people to do.”

Arisia shifted in the bed, squirming as Jenny’s power washed away the energy the Guardians has used to keep the Graxian sedated for several days.

She opened her eyes slowly to see Jenny leaning over her, wearing an obviously forced smile.

“What happened?” She demanded. She was shocked to discover how weak her voice sounded in her own ears.

“You flipped out, girl friend.” Jenny told her, deciding that, in light of what had to be done, honesty was the best policy. “Something screwed with your mind but I got a friend here who can fix things. You remember Dr. Strange?”

Arisia turned her head slightly to see the man standing beside Jenny and nodded slightly. It took an effort, but she recalled meeting the Dr. Strange from Probability Ten several weeks earlier. This man, she knew, came from the Earth on which Jennifer had been born.

Dr. Strange sat on the bed side and waited for Arisia to focus on him.

“Arisia, The Guardians have done nothing to your memories.” He got that out before she could ask. “But your memories have been altered. Your true memories are still in your mind, but they have been blocked by an overlying set of memories. I can fix it, but I need your permission and your help. Together, we can go into your mind and I can show you what is false and what is real. We won’t be able to remove the false memories without endangering any memories you have gained since they were placed in your mind, but they will no longer feel like your own memories. They will seem more like things you have learned about some one else. But I will do nothing without your full knowledge and agreement.”

Arisa looked over Strange’s shoulder to see Jenny watching her with pleading eyes. Finally she nodded.

“As long as Jenny can stay here.” She said.

“Girl, I don’t think even the Starheart could get me to leave.” Jenny said, moving to the other side of the bed and taking a hand in hers.

“Very well.” Strange nodded and place his hands on her face, his fingers lightly resting on her temples. “Let us begin…..”

MVP1-23

“She’s sleeping.” Jenny said as she stepped out of the room hours later to join Hal and the Guardians. “Dr. Strange said we should let her sleep and wake up naturally.” When the others inquired about the Doctor, Jenny informed them that she had already returned him to Probability Ten.

“What the hell is going on?”

Jenny turned as Kara and Rogue barged into the waiting area. Before either could get more than a few steps into the room, Jenny had thrown herself at them, gathering them both into her arms and hugging fiercely.

“How…” she demanded after take several deep breaths and pushing them both to arm’s length.

“Blame that one.” Rogue indicated Ganthet. “He popped in on our convoy and told Kara and I we were needed right away. “Of course he popped out again with out explaining anything, including why he isn’t dead. I could have sworn he was one of those that died around Mars.”

“We left the Convoy with the Twins and sped ahead.” Kara finished, looking at Jenny closely. Had she learned about Lar?

“It was Arisia.” Jenny explained before Kara could say anything else. She filled the two in on what had happened.

“But Dr. Strange says she’ll be okay?” Rogue demanded. Both she and Kara had reasons to hold the Probability Sorcerer in the highest of respect. Kara because he had been instrumental in her resurrection and Rogue because He and Reed Richards had finally discovered away for her to control her mutant ability to absorb the powers of others. Of course, that had not lasted long she had accidently absorbed Kara’s powers and been transformed into a full blooded non-mutant Kryptonian. Permanently. But that had not been the fault of either man, simply rotten timing on her part when she had activated her powers to attempt to drain the Juggernaut and had, instead, touched Kara.

“Once Dr. Strange lowered the barriers to her true memories, the false ones felt like…invaders…in her mind.” Jenny explained. She shook her head. “Arisia said it is like watching a movie and then throwing away the DVD. You don’t have the movie anymore, but you’ve already watched it, so you know what was in it.”

She sighed and looked at Hal.

“The worst of it was that the false memories were built on true emotions.” She said. “Arisia was infatuated with Hal Jordon. She looked up to him. Damned near worshiped the ground he walked on.” Her voice shook with barely suppressed rage. “She loved him and that love gave weight to the overlying memories.”

Jenny paused, catching a glance shared between Kara and Rogue.

“Okay, you two.” She demanded. “I know those looks. I just tell you we’ve been able to fix Arisia and you look as if the universe is ending.”

“That’s good news, Jenny.” Kara finally spoke, steeling herself. The timing was not good, but she knew that Jenny would never forgive them if she later learned what they had discovered on Daxam and had not told her. “I’m sorry we have to follow it up with some bad news.”

MVP1-23

“Well that went over well.” Rogue commented dryly when they finished with their news.

Jenny had stood completely still, eyes riveted to them as they shared their information. She had then turned and been instantly, noisily sick. It had been Hal who threw up a thick energy shield around Jenny to grant her privacy.

His mouth was closed into a tight line. He obviously did not think it had been a good idea to inform Jenny about Lar at this time, but he was wise enough to know that these two women knew Jenny far better than he did.

“It was necessary, Hal.” Kara said, reading his expression correctly. “She needed to hear it now and work through it.” She shrugged. “It would have been worse if we had waited and she discovered we had known all along.”

“Kara? Rogue?”

Moving so fast that, for a brief instant it appeared she was standing in two places at the same time, Rogue flashed to the side of the frail looking Graxian that stood in the door way of the room in which Jenny had left her sleeping.

“Dear, you need to get back in that bed.” Rogue chided gently.

“What’s wrong with her?” Arisia pointed to the green energy cylinder that surrounded Jenny with one hand while the other clutched the side of her head. “Her emotions. I can’t block her. What happened?”

Rogue hesitated but a green arm emerged from the cylinder, waving at her to say what had to be said.

Kara joined them and, together they told Arisia exactly what they had told Jenny.

Hal, watching all of this, was amazed as the Graxian slowly straightened, as rage over came the feelings of being violated. When Rogue and Kara finished, she said nothing. She simply walked forward and stepped through the energy field Hal had erected as if it were not there.

For a few moments, no one moved or said anything. Finally the energy cylinder faded, revealing not the two people those waiting had been expecting, but Senturia.

“We have control now, Kara.” The mega-sentinel spoke, using that weird, two-toned voice of hers. “We need to deal with our pains, but we will return shortly. These others will tell you what you need to know.” She started to turn and froze for a moment, her eyes locked on Hal Jordon. She then continued her turn and walked from the room.

“I still say that voice of hers, theirs, whatever, gives me the creeps.” Rogue muttered.

“We obviously have some issues that need to be taken care of after we’ve seen to Brainiac’s Hunter-Killer fleet.” Kara said, turning to the Guardians. “But let’s tackle one thing at a time.”

“I wonder.” Ganthet mused still staring at the door through which Senturia had disappeared. When he noticed that all the others were looking at him, he shrugged in a very un-Guardian manner. “These two wonderful ladies,” here he indicated the two Shandras, “have filled me in a bit on what is transpiring. In all that has occurred, Probability-3 plays a great part. I have learned that it was originally thought that Qward might be involved.”

“An assumption that might not be correct.” Shandra-1 admitted.

“Things appear to be…disjointed.” Shandra-2 put in. “The Multiverse is feeling…unstable.”

“Unstable.” Kara shook her head. “Now there is an understatement. And the only thing we think we know for sure is that all of this some how centers on Probability Three.”

“What the hell has Probability Three got to do with Glorith?” Rogue demanded.

“Probably nothing.” Kara mused. “We know that Glorith escaped from the Citadel at the End of Time when Ian took up residence. I think her involvement in all of this is purely incidental. Unfortunate, but I really don’t think the two are connected.”

“She had to have been connected to Brainiac.” Rogue disagreed, folding her arms across her chest and rubbing her arms. “Glorith used magic to kidnap and replace Lar. And when it became impossible for her to hide the fact that the Hunter-Killer Stations on Daxam had been discovered, she probably used her magic to prevent the Kandorians from using those stations to send out the self-destruct signals.”

“Perhaps.” Kara conceded. “But this….this is something bigger, I believe. Something that goes beyond Brainiac and Glorith.”

“Kara is correct.”

The entire group turned as Jenny and Arisia, now separated, re-entered the room.

“As much as Glorith and her actions effect me…us… directly,” Jenny continued, “I believe that Kara is right when she says that she is incidental to everything else.” She pulled Arisia close. “This was the first time that we have merged that Arisia has been able to fully integrate…holding nothing back. We were able to look at those overlaid memories of hers and we can see that Dr. Strange was correct as well. The wave of energy she encountered was not so much energy as it was an unraveling. An unraveling of time and space. Whatever part Glorith played in all this, she is no longer a priority. Probability Three is our only priority now.”

“I think a fleet of Hunter-killers, combined with a Brainiac invasion fleet, and a bunch of Kryptonian criminals are threat enough, thank you very much.” Rogue drawled, attempting to draw Jenny away from the painful subject. “Which brings me to my next question. Why haven’t the Phantom Zoners obliterated that Earth already?”

“We don’t know.” Shandra-1 replied. “As best we can surmise, there is some form of resistance on Earth that is holding them in check, just barely. “Our information on that is sketchy, but there may even have been a falling out amongst some of the Kryptonians, with some of them actually fighting for the Terrans against Zod.”

“If that’s true, then Zod has got to be nearly insane with rage.” Kara said. “Zod is a cruel, evil man, but he was never a stupid man…until he became enraged.”

“So he is fighting a war against traitors in his own ranks who have sided with the Terrans…and now Brainiac is moving the remainder of his Hunter-Killer Fleet towards Earth.” Arisia summed it up. “What are our plans?”

Kara started to speak and then stopped, looking at Jenny.

“This is your call, Jenny.” She said in a soft voice. She did not say anything else but her eyes told Jenny that if she wanted to pass on this, she would understand.

“Right.” Jenny took a deep breath and then looked around. “The Guardians of Probabilities One and Two have gathered together the Members of their Green Lantern Corps that they can spare. When your convoy gets here from Earth, we’ll open a gate way that will take us and the Probability One Green Lanterns to Probability Three. The Probability Two Green Lanterns will gate from their Oa and meet us there. The Green Lanterns will then transfer to the Sol system and render what ever assistance they can there.” She looked at Kara. “I would like the twins and Chas to accompany them. I think Alysa should remain with the fleet and take her lead from Babs.”

Kara stiffened and then relaxed as Rouge whispered the exact same words she had told the twins when they had asked to come with them.

“Each team has a leader, girls.” Rogue whispered. “That leader may change according to the mission, but there can only be one. Your team cannot be a debating society. Do you understand?”

“Okay, you’re the boss.” Kara spoke up instantly, barely aware that Rogue had closed one of her hands around the fist she held clinched at her side.

“Good.” Jenny looked at her long and hard before continuing. “The rest of us will try to over take the Brainiac fleet and attempt to take it out before it reaches the Sol System.”

“Over taking a vessel in hyper-space is going to be difficult. Attacking one in Hyper-space is not possible.” Kara said.

“You’re right.” Arisia said. “But together, Jenny and I should be able to force the fleet back into normal space where we can deal with it.”

“That convoy should be here soon.” Jenny said. “Let’s get ready to meet it and get on our way.” She turned to lead the way out of the room, stopping to turn back and face Hal Jordon.

“This is not your fight.” She told him. “You do not have to go with us.”

“Are you kidding?” Hal gave her a predatory smile. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world!”

(The Brainiac War is continued in Supergirl and The Legion of Super-Heroes (SLSH) chapter 5)

To be Continued……..

-- and may not be reprinted without permission.

-- The Continuum Worlds Concept is a joint creation of

-- Dylan Clearbrook and Eldric.

-- Otherverse, The Multiverse, Primalverse. and Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes,

-- as depicted in the Continuum Worlds, are original creations of Dylan Clearbrook.

-- Alterverse, The Inheritors and Rising Starr, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds,

-- are original creations of Eldric.

-- Wasteland, The Sorority, and Otherverse 2.0, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds

-- are original creations of Nomad (Jake H.).

-- The Realm and The Web of Shadows, as depicted in the Continuum Worlds,

-- are original creations of John P. and Jason G./ Andrew Shields respectively.

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-- is an original creation of Chip Caroon and the stories therein remain

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